Re: Warning - Maxtor SATA II and Nvidia nforce4

Jeff Garzik wrote (ao):
Ah, I see this made it to LKML :)

I'm not the OP. The Maxtor notice is a few months old already.

Dax Kelson wrote:
Short version
==============
Nvidia Nforce4 chipset with Maxtor SATA II drives with certain firmware
revisions cause data corruption and system instability when under
moderate to heavy I/O load.

I'm a bit suspicious of this.

Looking at the link, there are three problem areas and two problem blame
targets implied:

Data corruption -> blame nvidia driver
NCQ -> blame nvidia driver
Detection -> blame maxtor firmware

The first one likely applies to the Windows driver not Linux's sata_nv,
and thus irrelevant here. The second one OBVIOUSLY applies only to
Windows, since sata_nv (and libata itself) don't yet enable NCQ. The
third one could potentially apply to Linux. Lastly, your mention of
"nforce fake raid" almost certainly indicates Windows or proprietary
drivers.

Therefore, I ask:
* are you reporting a only drive detection problem?
* why are you reporting unrelated Windows problems to a Linux list?
* if you are indeed reporting a problem on Linux, where is the kernel
and driver version info, as requested in REPORTING-BUGS?
* and can you provide such info *and reproduce the problems* without
proprietary drivers loaded?

Your email is just a list of highly general symptoms. Your link seems
to indicate two NV driver bugs on Windows, and a Maxtor firmware upgrade
for undescribed detection problems.

My recommended action for users is:
1) Avoid Windows.
2) Don't panic.

Last december I requested new firmware for my drives. Maxtor called me
and asked if I did have any problems. I did not, but just wanted to fix
the problem before I would notice any.

The Maxtor guy then told me that harddisk firmware upgrades are best not
to be done if not needed, and asked what operating system I run (answer:
Linux). He said that the problems only exists with Windows, and that
Linux should be ok.

In fact, I have yet to see a problem with my sata Maxtor disks connected
to the onboard nForce4 controller. This supports Jeff Garziks story.

I do notice that the nForce4 controller most of the times fails to
detect some of the drives (seems random) on a reboot. A powerdown and
fresh boot lets the controller detect all disks again.

Sander

--
Humilis IT Services and Solutions
http://www.humilis.net
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